V Thomas Pynchon

Seven years ago, Vivienne Vane sacrificed her elite standing, her breathtaking beauty, and her health to save her daughter, Maya, through a secret, high-risk bone marrow transplant that left her chronically fatigued and physically altered. To protect her family from a ruthless shadow syndicate, she went undercover as a plain, submissive housewife, while secretly operating as "V"—the genius quantitative architect who single-handedly built her husband Julian Vance’s startup into a multi-billion-dollar empire. Julian, blinded by historical prejudice and convinced Vivienne drugged him to steal him from her beautiful older sister Cynthia, treats her with freezing disdain. The breaking point arrives when an active gunman storms a high-end restaurant. Julian uses his own body to shield Cynthia, leaving Vivienne directly in the line of fire. Hours later, brainwashed by Cynthia, their six-year-old daughter Maya tells Vivienne she wishes Cynthia was her real mother and leaves her alone in the hospital. Having paid her debt of love, Vivienne cuts the ties. She unleashes the Vane Financial Kill-Switch, strips Julian of his automated algorithmic edge, and walks out. As she enters a premium medical sanctuary to reclaim her health, she collides with Damian Thorne—the dangerous, sharp-witted titan of the city’s shipping cartels and Julian’s most lethal rival. While Julian and Cynthia realize their empire is hollow without "V," Vivienne undergoes a ruthless physical and social rebirth, ascending the ladders of global shadow power alongside a man who craves her mind as much as her body.

---> if you are interested in my work, please check out my novel The Starving Vulture. Available on Amazon, $3.99 for the Ebook and $14.95 for the Paperback https://www.amazon.com/Starving-Vulture-Miguel-Monta%C3%B1a/dp/1951150899<---------The Pacific Capital. A product of an altered world, the legacy of the dead Philippine nation. A congested megacity holding 50 million people all huddled in what was once Metro Manila. It is the center for Pacific Maritime Trade, the world's largest Tax Haven and one of the few places in the world free from the Draconian but necessary environmental laws that saved the world since Cometfall. Ruled by Megacorporations, Corrupt Politicians, Invested Nobility and Criminals. It is one of the world's most important agricultural and pharmaceutical centers. H-6 is an Arbiter of the Court. As Judge Jury and Executioner, they maintain the essential Power Plant Canals and Massive weather controlled Dome Districts. Two elements that even the all powerful Megacorps need maximize their profits. Making Arbiter's Court the true rulers of the city. But even an all powerful Arbiter of the Court like H-6 knows, that Ambition and Greed will always find ways to ignore the rule of Law. Solus Valentine is a Security Consultant, plying her trade to anyone in need. She is a gun for hire who has the street smarts for the city's underworld. Whether in the gilded halls or the most flooded streets, she's ready for your contract. But while completing a contract, she stumbles into a vast conspiracy that just might threaten the city's fragile power balance, if not the world. She just might need an Arbiter's help for this one. One who might be someone from her past.

There are a lot more truths in the books we read, than we’d like to admit. What if a book delves into the lives of the very town you live in? Reveals to you some personal stories of people you know? Or thought you knew. Bookstore owner Kevin Ellison faces this truth when a mysterious book shows up in Through a Mirror, Darkly by Kevin Lucia. Through a Mirror, Darkly is a Supernatural Thriller collection masked as a novel. With elements of mystery, suspense, and otherworldly horror, Through a Mirror, Darkly successfully delves into the worlds of Lovecraft, Grant, and the mysterious Carcosa. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing Arcane Delights. Clifton Heights' premier rare and used bookstore. In it, new owner Kevin Ellison has inherited far more than a family legacy, for inside are tales that will amaze, astound, thrill...and terrify: An ancient evil thirsty for lost souls. A very different kind of taxi service with destinations not on any known map. Three coins that grant the bearer's fondest wish, and a father whose crippling grief gives birth to something dark and hungry.

Investigative researcher Iris Thorne has spent years scrubbing her connection to the elite Blackwood family, living a life of quiet anonymity to escape a past that nearly destroyed her. But her carefully constructed world shatters when a cryptic, wax-sealed letter arrives. Inside is a single photograph of her brother—who went missing three years ago—and a heavy obsidian key to a vault she didn’t know existed. The trail leads directly to the doorstep of the one man she was warned never to cross: Silas Vane. Silas Vane, known to the press as the "Vulture of Tech," is a man of cold steel and calculated silences. Silas is currently facing a silent war of his own; a massive security breach threatens to topple Vane Global, and his board of directors is circling like sharks. He needs a distraction—a fiancé to soften his image and buy him time. Iris needs the secrets hidden in Silas's private vault to find her brother. The arrangement is a high-stakes charade defined by a cold contract and a strict "no-touch" clause. Iris must navigate the silent, surveillance-heavy hallways of the estate while playing the role of the future Mrs. Vane at high-society galas. But as she digs deeper into the house’s encrypted files, she realizes she isn't the only one hunting for the truth. When board members start disappearing and the estate’s AI begins to glitch. Iris realizes she has walked into a gilded death trap. As the lines between her mission and her heart begin to bleed, Iris finds herself drawn to the man behind the mask of the billionaire. With the killer closing in and the secrets of the Blackwood ledger finally coming to light, Iris must decide if Silas Vane is her protector or the predator she was sent to expose?

All her life, Veronica Vane has always been an unstoppable force of nature, in battle, strength, arcane magic, and wits. That is until the tables have turned on one mission that completely changed her life: destroying Nuella Sangre, a union between Werewolves and Vampires. No matter how strong Veronica was, it backlashed against her when she found herself falling for one of the richest businessmen in the world, The Prince of Nuella Sangre, Giovanni Felix Thorn. As she was falling in love, she realized how wrong she was, and fought alongside Nuella Sangre when it was threatened by her own half-sister, Elspeth Vane. For failing her mission, the evil forces of Dexo Fernia have rallied to end the reign of their own Queen, Veronica Vane, for her vulnerability. Little did they know, they will enter the lion’s den, as Veronica unleash the oldest magic amongst them; Yxorix

Richard Franklin has left his Midwestern roots behind to live on the coast of Maine with his family. But in the autumn of the year 2000, he must return to his Illinois birthplace on a sorrowful journey. His wife Michelle has been killed in New England by a hit-and-run driver who is never found, so back home he comes with her cremated remains, to fulfill a final wish and on her birthday scatter her ashes in the park along the river in Blackwater Valley—simply Blackwater Val to locals—the small town where they both grew up and fell in love. With him he brings his six-year-old daughter Katie who still grieves for her lost mother: Katie, who can sometimes guess who’s going to be on the phone before it rings. Who can stop all the clocks in the house, and break up clouds in the sky with her mind, and heal sicknesses, and who sometimes sees things that aren’t there...people who are no longer alive. All gifts she inherited from her mother. Only something isn’t quite right in the Val. Sinkholes are opening up, revealing the plague pits the sleepy hamlet was built over in the 1830s, when malaria and cholera outbreaks ran riot. Mysterious bird and fish die-offs begin to occur, and Katie can see ghosts of the dead gathering all around. But what she can’t see is the charred, centuries-old malevolence which has been waiting for her, and wants her for its very own. Or the pale Sallow Man who haunts the town’s nighttime streets...or the river witch—another Blackwater Val, of sorts—each of whom will be drawn one by one into the nightmarish bloodletting about to take place. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing